Recent Profile Visitors

The first flight for my new toy had both CHT reading perfect, slightly bigger mag drop on one side, and slightly higher EGT on one side.
On climb out both CHT perfect, one EGT went into the yellow and no better at lower power. Landed and checked plugs found one plug blackish and the others all good.
The local Rotax agent provided a new set of plugs and EGT problem fixed. I believe the high EGT was caused by incomplete combustion in the cylinder causing burning still in
the exhaust port.

Except for some.
David
It is better to use manifold pressure for power setting. 100% is max. cruise power about 35" map. 115% is take off power about 40" map.
I use economy cruise setting of 31" map. This is about 2/3 throttle lever and select 5000 rpm.
The figures are in the Rotax manual. Dunno if this answers your question.

Ed as I sit here impressed by your photographic skills I was just wondering if you ever worry about having a forced landing if the fan stops, or is it that this great scenery
fills your mind so you don't need to be concerned.

You must electrically connect the supply eg. the fuel truck or at least the nozzle to the fuel tank eg. the aircraft
Fuel truck hoses are tested for continuity on a regular basis enforced by law.
For the process of certification an aircraft fuel tank must be conductive and this can be achieved a number of ways. A glass fibre tank may have
an additive in the resin, or a copper strip inside the tank or any other method that will achieve conductivity. Or of course you could buy an aircraft with a carbon fibre
tank maybe a CT.?
To answer your question Al, just bond with the static wire on the truck to your exhaust pipe. It is still ok if there is a bit of resistance at the connection because static
electric charge is very high voltage and low current.

You are correct about the need to bond as I said but the difference in potential energy from the plane to ground is of no consequence. A spark could theoretically jump from the ungrounded plane to ground and no one would notice or care. I have worked in the petrochemical industry 40 years and understand static discharge hazards and can assure you that even jet airliners are not grounded but are bonded for fuelling.

Grounding the aircraft is about as much use as changing the colour of your shirt, it does nothing. To prevent static build up you must bond the source to the aircraft tank. I realise that dose not answer the question but static builds up by the flowing fuel, the faster the flow the more static can happen. I bond the nozzle to the filter/funnel. A lot of people bond the exhaust to the fuel truck with a static line. This has nothing at all to do with grounding.

Another point that has not been raised.
A CT does not need a lot of back stick in a turn because the fuselage is aerodynamically correct and therefore provides a higher percentage of the required lift the steeper the bank angle.
For this reason a pilot new to a CT will instinctively climb in a steep turn because they are used to applying back stick which a CT does not need a lot of.
If you want to prove this effect, go and stall a CT in a steep turn - at a safe altitude of course-. You will find that the increase in stall speed percentage is not as great as you would expect.

Andy please take no offence I am only joking. I need the I pad in the middle because my other half is really the nav. supervisor and we need the I pad in the middle. She is the best co-pilot ever, never takes the stick, just has to know where we are at any time. I can't complain but she keeps me honest. On a trip once it was pointed out to me that we were a mile or so left of track over a landmark on a 535 mile leg, there is no answer to that I was wrong, I still love flying with her. We both hate using I pad instead of paper maps but the world has moved on from paper maps. I have also noticed that they no not evaporate the day that they expire.

The VNE book speed is over 300 kilometres/hr about 162 Kt. but is limited by the parachute, and that varies by model of chute. Your a/c may be 145 or 162 or some other number. The flight manual says when in trouble to pull anyway even if above the labelled VNE. A Flight Design test pilot told me that he has tested VNE at over 330 kph. - about 175 Kt. many times, and they call that VD. ( not that social disease but V dive ) . A big word of caution here, some CTSW had a flutter problem at much lower speed. I think that these were the ones with the full span trim tab. My SW would begin to flutter at about 142 Kt. and then there was an upgrade to the trim tab mountings to re-inforce the mounting of the hinges that solved the fault completely. Subsequently I upgraded the elevator to the shorter trim tab same as on the LS and never had any flutter issues again.

I have a ram mount screwed to the tunnel near the floor with a bracket from the centre panel to stop it shaking. It works well - easy to read. Out of the sunlight so it does not cook. Also can swivel around so that my navigator / wife can use it to keep an eye on things. It is easier to use the I pad when mounted in the middle like this.

The ideal place
to hang up your headset. Assuming that they are positioned ok. Just grab hold and give them a shake as part of the preflight procedure, if they move do something about it otherwise continue with the pre takeoff checks.

With respect I know Roger is a wizard but I would not do this without having three people. Also you only need to pull the wings a few inches out.
Be careful not to damage the poly tube, it is easy to disconnect if you want by undoing the blue nut but you wont need to if you only pull the wings out a bit.
Same with the wires. When reinstalling remember to lube and align the ball socket at the front of the wing cause ya need to lift the wing up at the front to align it.

I have shut down the engine in flight and found better glide with the prop stopped with -12 flap at best speed for weight say about 75 kt.
almost no difference with 0 flap at best glide for weight say about 63 kt.
Also notice a longer float in the flare with the engine running compared to landing dead. This suggests that at idle thrust is more than drag at low speed and the reverse is also true.
Makes sense to me, open to other ideas though.